Gold lights on Zakim Bridge come with a personal story

Share via e-mail

The Zakim Bridge was illuminated last week by gold lights for National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

By Martine Powers
Globe Staff
September 08, 2013

It’s been just over a year since the state Department of Transportation decided to install new lights on the Leonard P. Zakim Bridge, allowing one of Boston’s newest landmarks to shine a brighter blue — and, on special occasions, to transform colors.

Since then, the lights have been in regular use. In addition to celebrating holidays and cheering on playoff runs by the Celtics, Patriots, and Bruins, they have brought awareness to issues like autism, eco-friendliness, and gun violence — and offered blue and yellow rays of comfort after this year’s Boston Marathon.

“We’d make trips to Boston, and crossing over the bridge, we knew our son was going to be in the hospital for a week, or two weeks, or a month,” Stoddard said. “It just hurt me to see the bridge.”

Since Cole’s death, he said, that sinking feeling hasn’t gone away.

“Every time I’d watch TV, I’d see the news and they’d show a shot of Zakim Bridge or the Prudential Center,” a view he often saw from the hospital window, Stoddard said. “And every time, it broke my heart.”

“They were painful symbols,” he continued, “and I wanted to turn it into something more positive.”

Stoddard said little is known about the disease that killed his son, largely because it’s such a rare form of cancer that receives only a tiny share of federal cancer research funding. Bringing gold to streets, buildings, clothes, and banners, he said, is his way of rallying for more research funding.

Apparently booking light time on the Zakim is as easy as an e-mail: Stoddard sent a message to MassDOT about the possibility of changing the bridge’s color to honor his son and other children with cancer, and
agency officials immediately said yes.

MassDOT spokeswoman Sara Lavoie said officials have been receiving an increasing number of requests for special Zakim lighting nights. In just the next few weeks, the bridge will shine red for blood cancer awareness, teal for ovarian cancer awareness and the Facial Pain Research Foundation, and pink for breast cancer awareness.

“We have been able to accommodate these requests as best as possible and on a first-come basis,” Lavoie said. “We find that the requesters are very gracious as we do our best to work around any overlap.”

Stoddard, his wife, and their two surviving children came to Boston last Sunday to see the lights. This time, he said, crossing the Zakim “felt like seeing two beacons of hope.”

“A week before my son passed away, he looked at me and he said he wasn’t going to be growing up,” Stoddard recalled. “And I said, ‘Someday, you’re going to do something big.’ ”

Stoddard continued, “This is the big thing I’m doing for him.”

Repairs set on I-93 in Wilmington and Woburn

A couple weeks ago, Starts & Stops readers responded with excitement when they learned that the bridge deck on Interstate 93 southbound from Somerville into Boston was going to be repaved — even if that meant a temporary removal of the barrier that protected the highway’s HOV lane.

Since then, I have received a swell of e-mails from folks clamoring for answers on when other sections of the highway are slated to receive a makeover.

Mark your calendars, people: The project to resurface both directions of I-93 in Wilmington and Woburn was just awarded to a contractor last week. The 6-mile stretch of road extends from a point just north of the I-95 interchange, north just past the bridge over the Haverhill commuter rail overpass.

A bit of the construction on the 6-mile stretch may start this fall, but the bulk of the work will take place in 2014 and 2015. Bridge decks along this stretch will also be repaired and upgraded. It may cause some traffic interruptions, said MassDOT spokesman Mike Verseckes, but those will likely occur late at night from Sunday to Thursday each week.

“This is common for interstate maintenance as closing lanes during daylight or during peak commuting hours has the potential to substantially impact traffic,” Verseckes said.

Pretty fabulous stuff, right? But, as it turns out, this isn’t the first time the T’s general manager, Beverly A. Scott, has brought a hip-hop-inspired safety music video to a transit agency, as pointed out in a tweet from @TransitMatters.

Before Scott came to the T, she was general manager of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. And before there was “The Safety Bounce,” there was “The Safety Slide.”

BostonGlobe.com complimentary digital access has been provided to you, without a subscription, for free starting today and ending in 14 days. After the free trial period, your free BostonGlobe.com digital access will stop immediately unless you sign up for BostonGlobe.com digital subscription. Current print and digital subscribers are not eligible for the free trial.

Thanks & Welcome to Globe.com

You now have unlimited access for the next two weeks.

BostonGlobe.com complimentary digital access has been provided to you, without a subscription, for free starting today and ending in 14 days. After the free trial period, your free BostonGlobe.com digital access will stop immediately unless you sign up for BostonGlobe.com digital subscription. Current print and digital subscribers are not eligible for the free trial.